Southern Grist Brings Non-Alcoholic Beer to Nashville

Southern Grist is all about southern hospitality, and with this new series, they’re making room at the table for a different type of beer drinker. They take a lot of pride in pushing the boundaries of beer, from massive stouts, thick fruited sours, over the top IPAs, and everything in between. But where do you go when you’ve explored so many possibilities?

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What’s a Kettle Sour All About?

What’s the difference between a Kettle Sour and a traditional sour? Is there even a difference? It’s a question that I hear frequently as breweries continually explore new beer styles. The answer is that yes, there are critical differences in the flavors of the beers and in how they’re made.

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Pure Project | Lief Méthode Traditionnelle

San Diego-based Pure Project started its craft brewing journey in Costa Rica in 2014 but has been firmly ensconced on the west coast since 2016. However, the brewery still focuses on many of the elements that made its Costa Rican location and the initial brewery concept unique like using pure, unique and local ingredients whenever possible, giving back to environmental nonprofits and often starting with the ingredients before determining the style of beer they’ll create. Lief is one such beer.

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Suffolk Punch Brewing | New Sours

Suffolk Punch Brewing opened in 2017 and just released their first-ever “true” Sours. Woolverstone, Riverwilde and Lord Fogh were aged for three years in French wine barrels and released in April.

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Funkwerks | Barrel Aged Provincial

Funkwerks has been brewing Belgian-inspired beer and doing their part to “keep Fort Collins Funky” since 2010. They have managed to simultaneously be one of Colorado’s rising stars and maintain a Fort Collins hidden-gem vibe. While possibly best known for their flagship Saison, their GABF Gold Medal-winning Raspberry Provincial Sour Ale is also a crowd favorite from their core line up. Its popularity led them to create multiple variants, featuring other fruits such as pineapple, guava, passionfruit, apricot and strawberry rhubarb. The Rhuberry Provincial — the strawberry rhubarb variant — was the lucky liquid they put into a barrel to create Barrel Aged Provincial.
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Societe Brewing Company | The Thief

“There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to The Thief.” Obviously Bob Dylan was forecasting a future conversation between the Steve Miller song and the Barrel-Aged Blonde Ale concocted by Societe Brewing Company. While you might be forgiven for thinking ol’ Robert Zimmerman was out of his gourd when putting pen to paper on this exchange, there’s nothing crazy about enjoying Societe’s The Thief.

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Edge City Brewery | #squadgoals Berliner Weisse

Opening a new brewery in Charlotte, North Carolina, is already a risky business move. In a city with more than 30 breweries, it’s hard to stand out and generate the revenue and clientele necessary to survive. But opening a new brewery during a global pandemic in any city is an even riskier business move. Edge City Brewery tossed both of those fears to the wind and opened in Charlotte on April 16, 2020. Read More

Ultimate 6er | The Perfect Mother’s Day Beer

Mother’s Day may be well-known for mimosas, but here at PorchDrinking, we prefer something a little more hoppy. While Mother’s Day will be different than previous years, it doesn’t mean you can’t pick up some of your favorite local brews. If you can’t be with your mom, consider delivery as a nice surprise; and if you are a mom, stock up and know you have a day free of homeschooling. Need some inspiration? Check out our Ultimate 6er and you’ll be sure to find the perfect Mother’s Day beer for a video chat.

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Wild Mind Artisan Ales | Electric Factory

One of the Twin Cities’ best-kept craft beer secrets sits in the middle of a South Minneapolis industrial district. Where I-35 meets Highway 62, amid concrete contractors and industrial steel fabricators, you’ll come across Wild Mind Artisan Ales.

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Untappd Potential | Avery Brewing’s Bug Zapper

Welcome to the second installment in our new series! Untappd Potential is our chance to defend a beer that has a middling rating on Untappd, break down the negative user reviews and convince you to let your taste buds be the judge. (If you want some background on our inspiration for this series or more information on the Untappd app, check out our first article.)

Today’s contender: Avery Brewing Company’s Bug Zapper.

(READ: Why I Stopped Rating Beers on Untappd)

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Purpose Brewing Celebrates Two Years as Peter Bouckaert Declares, “Trends are Boring”

The second anniversary of Purpose Brewing was really, really hot. I don’t mean in popularity, though that would also be true: it was packed from the minute the doors opened at 2pm and stayed bustling throughout the entire weekend. But it was also one of the hottest days of summer so far in the Coloradoan city of Fort Collins, where Peter and Frezi Bouckaert opened their doors two years ago to a thirsty public. Despite the blistering sun outside, crowds stalked the air-conditioned tables inside and huddled up under tents outside to enjoy their beer in some shade. “Yes, it’s a million degrees out. And yes, I’m drinking a stout,” laughed one patron as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “But come on, have you tried this one?”

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4 Noses Brewing Company | Fruit on the Bottom

With a name like Fruit on the Bottom, it would be easy to mistake this kettle sour from 4 Noses Brewing Co. for a yogurt parfait. Alas, dear readers: I can confirm that it is indeed beer.

While my go-to beverage in a heat wave is usually a salty gose, every once in awhile it’s time to switch things up. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve had from this Broomfield-based brewery so it seemed like a worthwhile gamble.

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Drekker Brewing | After School PRRRT

I’m not sure about everybody else, but this summer seems to be going by way too quick. Sometimes, however, certain things come up that remind you of school in all the best ways. Drekker Brewing, out of Fargo, North Dakota (yes, that’s a real place) has given me a true sense of nostalgia with this fruited sour ale that I recently tried. Read More

Event Preview | Arrogant Sour Festival 2019

Emilia-Romagna, Italy, named by Lonely Planet in 2018 as the best place to visit in Europe, is known for many of the finer things in life. The birthplace and home of Ferrari and Lamborghini, a foodie paradise with city names you will recognize from your favorite cheeses and cured meats, and home of the world’s oldest university, there are a lot of reasons to book a holiday here. But there is a specific reason you may want to earmark the first weekend of June as your time to visit, and this is because of the fantastic Arrogant Sour Festival held in Reggio Emilia each year.

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Blending the Old with the New | How New Belgium’s Sour Program Continues to Resonate

In today’s U.S. craft beer market, tenure is a very relative term. So, when something has been around for 20 years, you take notice. That is the case with New Belgium Brewing’s wood-aged sour program, which is the oldest in the United States. The program has created sour trendsetters like La Folie; all the while continuing to set the mark for what consumers should look for in a good wood-aged sour.

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The Rare Barrel & Side Project Brewing | Avec des Amis

With spring fast approaching I find myself looking for stone fruit, both the actual fruit and in beer! The Rare Barrel collaborated with Side Project Brewing to bring about a beacon that spring is finally here. I was able to speak with Alex Wallash, founder of The Rare Barrel, about this collaboration brew and he provided some insight to the making of Avec des Amis.

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What We’re Drinking | February 8th, 2019

Would you be willing to fall in love with a new beer? Maybe even reconnect with a beer you already tasted before? February is a short month, but enough time to show our craft beer community some love. This week was interesting since I tried new beers as well as a beer spa experience. I wanted to celebrate a birthday in a different way, and I definitely accomplished that. Cheers to trying new beer experiences, even if it means submerging yourself in a hot tub full of beer ingredients! PorchDrinkers have a cool lineup of diverse beers and we are all over the country sharing this week’s What We’re Drinking.

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Perfect Timing: How the New Dogfish Head + Brouwerij Rodenbach Partnership Came to Be

Brewers collaborate with each other all the time. The results are usually pretty good and often buzzworthy. Then, there are those collaborations that make your eyes light up and your tastebuds salivate at the thought of two sour beer-brewing masterminds coming together to create something truly special that is primed to set the market ablaze – if executed properly. The new international collaboration between Delaware-based Dogfish Head and Belgium sour stalwart Brouwerij Rodenbach has the potential to do just that.

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An Extended Summer: The Gose’s Evolution into a Year-Long Staple

It’s the dead of winter and I’m not drinking a burly, barrel-aged stout – or even an IPA. Instead, I’ve cracked open a can of Creature Comforts’ Tritonia Gose. Was I envisioning a beach on some far off island? Or a sweltering summer sun? Nope, I just wanted something light and flavorful that wasn’t a lager and wouldn’t weigh me down like some of the heavier stouts and barleywines I’ve had on winter night’s past; and I’m not alone in this sentiment.

Much like the rise of spiked seltzer, the lighter styles of beer, namely session sours such as gose ale, are experiencing a bit of a renaissance this days as folks are beginning to choose tart and tangy beers for their ability to bridge the gap between calorie-conscious and flavor-packed. IPAs aren’t going away – to the contrary even. However, many breweries have begun to appreciate the gose’s spot in giving their beer lineup a bit of balance along with a burst of new flavors. For more insight into the growing popularity of the style over the past few years, I asked several breweries making some of the best gose-style ales in the nation to get their thoughts.

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Epic Brewing Co. | Oak and Orchard: Release #11

Oak and Orchard Sour Ale with Blackberry, Black Currant & Cherry

Epic Brewing Co. has done it again! Their Oak and Orchard lineup now includes another excellent seasonal beer incorporating high-quality ingredients. With this Cabernet Sauvignon inspired introduction, Epic pulls out all of the stops. They’ve added blackberry, black currant and one of our favorite sour complements, the all mighty cherry. Coming on the heels of the popular Strawberry Rhubarb in the same series, every subsequent modification proves Epic is catering to eager taste buds of sour beer lovers. Read More